I had the day off yesterday so I decided to carve out a little time to do something different. Between the pixel art and 2d character animation I've been doing a lot of cartoony stuff lately so it was time to dive back into the pseudo-3d world of After Effects particles. I whipped up this little GIF to send to friends and family for the New Year, it was a lot of fun. Happy 2019 everyone!

​This is the first in a series of tutorials I'm doing on my work for the web series, PlotQuest. This one goes over some tricks for creating a quick pixel art look in Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint. So if you've ever wondered how to take a piece of art you've already made and make it look like pixel art without having to actually redraw it as pixel art then you may wanna check it out.

If you have any questions, comments, or just wanna show off what you've made using this trick please leave a comment.

Momentum continues to build! Tommy just finished some new concept art for Amy and Pltnm06Ghost has been busily boarding Episode 2. For my part, I've been working on animation and setting up our social media so we have a YouTube channel ​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5k7XLDT8KRQ-J12TVkRVug, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. now.

​You can find all the concept art and video of Ghost's storyboarding process on our Production Blog. More to come very soon!

Sorry it's been so long since I've given any sort of update. After the panel at Archon my team and I had a LOT to process, discuss, and figure out how to implement. Thank you again to everyone who was there for your great feedback, it's really been helpful! We're now in full production mode on PlotQuest so updates will be coming much more regularly now.

The storyboards for Episode 1 are up as well as some more concept art and info on our heroine, Ivy. You can find all on our production blog. More art coming soon!

After many, many nights and weekends "PlotQuest" is finally ready for the world! Well... at least the small part the world that happens to be at a Sci-Fi convention in St. Louis this weekend. The Popcorn Sundae team and I will be doing a pre-release screening this weekend at Archon 42. If anyone out there happens to be coming to Archon this weekend you may wanna check it out. It's happening Saturday (Oct. 13) at 5 pm in the Cahokian Room of the Gateway Convention Center. More details on the convention and such can be found on the Archon website. Hope to see you there!

For the past few months a couple of my former students and I have been working on creating a pilot for an animated series. I can't say too much about it at this point but what I can do is show you a couple shots from the pilot.

We completed the animatic back in January and it debuted at the ARTrepreneures Showcase hosted by the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and the Cortex Innovation Community. The animatic was very well received so we decided to move forward with finishing the show. Because this is a passion project right now, we've mainly been doing this in our spare time, however, I'm happy to report that the pilot episode is in final editing at this point and we'll be scheduling a screening soon. More on that as things develop.

Intro Animation for our 2018 Game Jam game, "Fright Knight". Brett Bravery has slain the vile Lady Antagotha, and saved the kingdom. Too bad you’re Lady Antagotha. Now, get your revenge by haunting him in his own castle. Transmit your message from beyond the grave and SCARE HIM TO DEATH.

Last night, I received a Certificate of Alumni Accomplishment from the St. Louis Community College Board of Trustees. I'm so honored to have received not one, but two, of these awards in the past decade. I was given the award in recognition of all I've done as a teacher there, in particular, setting up a mentorship program for recent STLCC - Florissant Valley Animation graduates.

For this program, I selected a diverse group of very talented recent graduates. These artists work as my apprentices, helping me with the art and animation on an animated series, as well as other paid opportunities. I was awarded a grant from the RAC which I’m using to pay them for their work. My hope is that this will provide them with a stepping stone to continue to hone their skills and gain professional experience to keep their careers moving forward.

Animation is, by nature, a collaborative process. It's been a lot of fun getting to work with other animators on something we all enjoy.